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1E3 Grp 7 - Deep Sea

Team members

Names / Roles:

Ji Young(Leader)

Yi Min(Writer)

Angie(Research)

Namirah(Research)

Overview

Brief description of the ecosystem:

The deep seas are often considered to be the last great, unexplored regions on Earth.Modern research has shown that, despite the pitch-blackness of the water, the freezing cold, and the crushing pressure, some amazing and bizarre creatures have adapted to life in the depths of the sea.Every year hundreds of unknown creatures are discovered ranging from tiny crustaceans to monster fish, and hundreds, even thousand. Here are the most unusual creatures in deep water .

Deep sea plants

- Deep sea creatures are fish and other creatures that live down in the deepest part of the ocean. It is very cold down at the bottom and there is no sunlight only the light produced by the some of the creatures. Almost every deep sea creature has a cell in their body that makes a light.

Phytoplankton

Deep sea plant that are growing in the experimental mesocosms. Under the microscope they are not much to look at –look like small blobs. They grow rapidly, each cell divide into 2. Phytoplankton the deep sea plant growth is often described as ‘exponential’ 1 cell divides in to 2, 2 cells divide into 4and so on. Therefore phytoplankton populations grow quickly also called as ‘phytoplankton bloom’ and the numbers of phytoplankton will increase until there are no nutrients left in the water.

Sea Grass

Most common types of Deep sea plants falls under the seagrass classification. Seagrass actually come from four different plant families. These plant families are able to grow in salt water as well. These Deep sea plants under the sea are flowering and grow in underwater meadows. These are essential to sea life ecology. Although this type of deep sea plant is not fed upon by most animals. Also provide erosion and wave protection and may provide a source to fertilize soil. These deep sea plants were used in the past as a filler for mattresses.

18. Sea Cucumber

Sea cucumbers feed on tiny particles like algae, minute aquatic animals, or waste materials, which they gather in with 8 to 30 tube feet that look like tentacles surrounding their mouths. The animals break down these particles into even smaller pieces, which become fodder for bacteria, and thus recycle them back into the ocean ecosystem. Earthworms perform a similar function in terrestrial ecosystems.

17.Deep-sea Anglerfish

The deep-sea angler fish has a long fishing-rod fin hanging down over its mouth, with a blob of light at the end. Small fish mistake the light for food and swim straight toward it - right into the angler fish huge, wide-open mouth

16.Goblin Shark

This is a deep-sea shark, the sole living species in the family Mitsukurinidae. The most distinctive characteristic of the goblin shark is the unorthodox shape of its head. It has a long, trowel-shaped, beak-like rostrum or snout, much longer than other sharks’ snouts. Some other distinguishing characteristics of the shark are the color of its body, which is mostly pink, and its long, protrusible jaws.

15. Ocean Sunfish

The ocean sunfish (Mola mola) is the heaviest bony fish in the world, with an average weight of 1000 kilograms. The species is native to tropical and temperate waters around the globe.

14. Megamouth Shark

This shark is an extremely rare and unusual species of deep water shark. Discovered in 1976, only a few have ever been seen, with 39 specimens known to have been caught or sighted as of 2007 and three recordings on film. Like the basking shark and whale shark, it is a filter feeder, and swims with its enormous mouth wide open, filtering water for plankton and jellyfish.

13. Chimaera

This strange cartilaginousfishuses its long snout to scan over the sea floor for the electric impulses of its prey that bury in the muddy sea floor, just like a metal detector

12. Fangtooth

This fish, also called an ogrefish, while understandably named for their disproportionately large, fang-like teeth and unapproachable visage, are actually quite small and harmless to humans: the larger of the two species, the common fangtooth, reaches a maximum length of just 16 centimetres (6 inches); the shortthorn fangooth is about half this size.

11. Pelican Eel

The pelican eel’s most notable feature is its enormous mouth, much larger than its body. The mouth is loosely-hinged, and can be opened wide enough to swallow a fish much larger than itself. The pouch-like lower jaw resembles that of a pelican, hence its name.

10. Blue-Ringed Octopus

The blue-ringed octopus is the size of a golf ball, but its venom is powerful enough to kill humans. There is no known antidote.

9. Viperfish

With a fearsome grin fit for a movie monster, the viperfish is a real-life predator that lurks in one of the world’s most remote locations.

8. Grenadiers

This large species has a rounded head and a mouth which faces forward to catch squid and fish that swim up off the sea floor. As in most other rattails, the males of this species have a special drum machine on their swim bladder that is used to attractfemales.

7.Vampire Squid

The Vampire Squid is covered entirely in light-producing organs called photophores. The animal has great control over the organs, capable of producing disorienting flashes of light for fractions of a second to several minutes in duration.

6. Glass Squid

With its polka-dot mantle and wide-eyed expression, this glass creature represents a lighter side of the inky ocean deep.

5. Giant Squid

The elusive giant squid, known to science as Architeuthis dux, is one of the world’s largest animals, reaching a length of up to 60 feet. It is the largest known invertebrate in the world.

4. Giant Isopod

These creatures are thought to be abundant in cold, deep waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean.

3. FootballFish

The species holds pride of place as the first deep-sea angler ever found. The original specimen washed ashore in Greenland in 1833; at 22 inches long, it is still the largest one on record. Since no females of this species have ever been found bearing parasitic males, biologists assume they are fertilized by free-swimming mates.

2. Pacific Blackdragon

Female blackdragons are about two feet (61 cm) long and have fanglike teeth and a long chin whisker. The males are small, about three inches (8 cm) in length, and brownish in color. They have no teeth, no chin barbel and no stomach. Unable to eat, the male lives only long enough to mate.

1. Amphipod

The unusual animal, called Phronima, an Amphipod, is one of the many strange species recently found on an expedition to a deep-sea mountain range in North Atlantic.

Where can it be found?

By the title,we can know that these creatures are found deep deep inside the sea.

Physical Factors

LIGHT

Deep in the ocean, where sunlight can no longer penetrate, lies an incredible world of darkness. And against all odds, this just happens to be the location of one of nature's most impressive artificial light shows. The creatures here have evolved their own ways of dealing with the darkness. Through a process known as bioluminescence, they have developed the ability to use chemicals within their bodies to produce light.

TEMPERATURE

The surface temperatures of the oceans range from 40°Celsius or so in shallow tropical lagoons to -1.9°C, the typical freezing point for sea water, in polar regions. Most of the water in the deeper layers is very cold.

pH

Predicted pH profiles in typical deep-sea conditions, where the flux of organic carbon (Foc) is allowed to vary between 1 and 15 µmol.cm-2.yr-1

MINERAL SALTS AND SALINITY

The salinity (salt content) of ocean water varies. The oceans and seas contain roughly 5 x 10 16 tons of salts. One cubic foot of average sea water contains 2.2 pounds of salt.

The oceans are about 3.5% salt (by weight). Salinity is generally reported in terms of parts per thousand (abbreviated o/oo), the number of pounds of salt per 1,000 pounds of water; the average ocean salinity is 35 o/oo.

The saltiest water is in the Red Sea and in the Persian Gulf, which have a salinity of about 40 o/oo (due to very high evaporation rates and low fresh water influx). The least salty seas are in the polar regions, where both melting polar ice and a lot of rain dilute the salinity.

Oxygen

The dark, cold waters of the deep are also oxygen-poor environments. Consequently, deep sea life requires little oxygen. Oxygen is transported to the deep sea from the surface where it sinks to the bottom when surface temperatures decrease. Most of this water comes from arctic regions. Surprisingly, the deep sea is not the most oxygen-poor zone in the ocean. The oxygen minimum zone lies between 500-1,000 m, where there are more species that require oxygen depleting the oxygen in this zone during respiration. In addition, the bacteria that feed on decaying food particles descending through the water column also require oxygen. Oxygen is never depleted in the deepest parts of the ocean because there are fewer animals to deplete the available oxygen.

Comments (1)

Excellent work you guys!!! Loads of Pictures with interesting information! I enjoyed reading your Wiki article. One thing that you guys can improve on is the part on Inter-relationships in the Ecosystem. You should be writing about the relationships that can be found IN THE DEEP SEA and not in general. But other than that... GOOD JOB!